In a topsy-turvy week in the Missouri Valley Conference, Illinois State guard Jaci McCormack earned top honors. McCormack, who led the Redbirds to road wins at Southwest Missouri State and Wichita State, was chosen Valley Player of the Week after averaging 14.5 points and 5.0 rebounds in two games.
The effort helped the Redbirds beat two teams higher in the standings on the road--a benchmark effort in a week in which eight of the 10 Valley games were won by the team lower in the standings.
McCormack, a sophomore from Lapwai, Idaho who graduated from high school at Lake Oswego, Oregon, shot 47 percent from the field, 50 percent from the three-point arc and made all six of her free throws while contributing passing, rebounding and defense to the Redbird effort. Illinois State was just the fifth team in 15 years to collect a sweep of two games on the SMS-WSU road trip, more familiarly known as the Bear-muda Triangle.
In the win at SMS, McCormacks three steals paced a Redbird defense which limited SMS to 56 points, its lowest total for a league home game, matching the Bears lowest total for a conference home game in six years.
McCormacks career-high eight rebounds helped the Redbirds to a 36-30 advantage on the boards at Wichita State in a 67-52 win. The Redbird defense looked good by comparison over the weekend because, two days later, the Bears scored 98 in a win over Indiana State while the Shockers scored 87 in an 87-84 win over the Sycamores two days before getting 35 fewer against the Redbirds.
Redbird coach Jenny Yopp, whose team comes home to play Evansville at 7:05 p.m. Thursday in Redbird Arena, applauded McCormacks selection in a week where plenty of Valley teams had heroes and upsets dominated the results.
Jaci put together two complete performances at both ends of the floor, said Yopp. Her composure, her hitting shots, defending, rebounding and passing gave us great leadership. Its a tremendous competitive accomplishment because she is such a team-oriented player.
McCormack is the first Redbird player to capture Valley Player of the Week honors since Steph Reichle got the nod Nov. 29, 1999.
